Inspiring Hispanic youths to strive for academic excellence
and to serve their communities

OUR PROJECT

RATIONALE

Youths' Low Self-esteem

A research study 1/ found that "every
educator who works with Latino children speaks of the problem of
'self-concept,' or self-esteem. Children who have no positive impressions
about themselves will fail [in school and the workplace]." According to
the same study, this creates a condition in the schools where Latino
children are viewed as potential, even probable, failures. This, in turn,
tends to perpetuate the negative attitude that the youngsters have about
themselves; thus, increasing the odds that the educators' low expectations
of them will be realized.

According to several studies 2/ and 3/ conducted in West
Texas, the higher the self-esteem of Chicano youth and the stronger they
identified with their ethnic group, the better was their attitude about
themselves as individuals and the better were their behaviors.

Low Educational Retention

Hispanics are significantly less likely to complete high school than
non-Hispanic whites. For example, a study in 2000 found that, among
16 to 18 year-olds, the high school dropout rate for Latinos was 27.8 %
and 6.9 % for non-Hispanic whites. In 2001, another study found that only
63.2% of Latinos ages 25-29 had completed high school, versus 93.3% of
whites in this same age group. 4/

In higher education, Latinos lag behind their non-Hispanic white and
black peers. In 2000, 21.7% of Latinos ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in
post-secondary, degree- granting institutions. The percentage for blacks
and whites were 30.5% and 38.7%, respectively.

What accounts for this problem? Some studies have found several
reasons, among them:

Lack of intellectual stimuli and role models to influence their
attitude about education.

Teachers who assume they are slow learners and treat them as such.

Textbooks to which they cannot relate.

Perpetuating these conditions are the negative images of their people
that young Latinos get from the mass media and movies. Newspapers, radio
and television often run stories about Hispanics committing crimes, and
movies often portray Latinos as criminals. On the other hand, there are
rarely positive, inspiring stories about this ethnic group.

According to a 1996 study conducted by the Center for Media and Public
Affairs for the National Council of La Raza, many more Latinos than
non-Hispanic whites or blacks play criminals on prime-time television
shows. 5/

In another report made public in 1996, "more than 85 percent of
television network news stories about Hispanics are about crime,
affirmative action, immigration or welfare." Regarding the study, The
Miami Herald quoted Lisa Navarrete, of the National Council of La Raza:
"The study confirms that media play a large part in perpetuating
stereotypes about our community." Roberto Vizcón, news director at
Telemundo's WSCV-Channel 51 in Miami, Florida, said, "Networks only cover
Hispanics when some kind of negativism is involved." 6/

(To see the sources of this information, go to Appendix
A.)

With all of the above, is it any surprise that many Latino
youth--Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans more than other Hispanics;
native-born more than foreign-born--tend to have a low regard of
themselves and their people?

To understand and appreciate the affect these negative stimuli have on
Hispanic-American youth, let us go through a couple of exercises and see
if they accurately measure our own knowledge and impressions of
Hispanics.

Excercise 1 -
Knowledge of Hispanics

Please answer the following questions:

Why should North Americans be grateful to Bernardo de Galvez?

What was the first European settlement in North America?

Who are two world-renowned Hispanic opera singers?

Why should Hispanics be associated with public education in this
country?

Who was the first U.S. Navy admiral?

Who originated the theory that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever?

How have Hispanics influenced the systems of law in the United
States?

How many Hispanics have been astronauts?

How many Hispanics have earned the Congressional Medal of Honor?

(For the answers, go to Appendix B.)

If you were unable to answer most of the questions correctly, it means
that much information about Hispanics has been unavailable to you. This
happens to Latino youth, too. Imagine the implications.

Exercise 2 -
Impressions of Hispanics

For each person-type on the list below, indicate the ethnic or racial
group that you believe best matches it (mark H for Hispanic, W for
non-Hispanic White and A for African American). Also, on the third column,
indicate what your impression is of each type (mark + or -).

Type of Person

Ethnic/Racial Group

Impression

1. Professor

2. Nobel Prize winner

4. Illegal immigrant

5. Television personality

6. Corporate executive

7. Popular historical figure

8. Skilled person

9. Gang member

10. Unemployed person

11. War hero

12. Convict/ex-convict

13. Business owner

If you placed H next to items 4, 9, 10 and 12, but none next to other
items, how would you assess your overall impression of Hispanics? Many
Latino youths have the same impression, for the same reason. Imagine the
implications.

In general, North Americans sometimes receive negative information
about other ethnic/racial groups, but usually it is offset by positive
information-in contrast with Hispanics. Also, the other groups have enough
visible positive role models whose influence neutralizes the affects of
the negative information. African Americans, for example, have their
sports heroes, television and movie celebrities and prominent political
leaders, who are talked and written about in the mass media to the extent
that some of them become household names for blacks and whites alike. They
can be, and often are, positive inspirations for African-American
youths.

But what about the positive role models for Hispanic youths? Who
motivates and inspires them? The models exist, but few Latinos know about
them because the models get little or no coverage in the mass media, and
because there have been no concerted efforts to publicize their
achievements. Who are the heroes of the Latino youngsters? If they exist
at all, they are probably non-Hispanics.

The history textbooks in our schools, for example, contain considerable
information on the roles and achievements of other ethnic and racial
groups in our society-even those from other countries-who participated in
some of our most notable historical events, such as the American
Revolutionary War. But there is little or nothing about Hispanics.

(To see examples of what history textbooks
mention and omit, go to Appendix C.)

Project
Components

Motivating

Seminars, symposia, workshops: Contract motivational
speakers and discussion leaders to conduct motivational activities with
Hispanic youth groups, to instill in their members pride in their cultural
heritage, to raise their self-esteem and to inspire them to strive for
excellence. There will be several of these activities, each one
reinforcing the other.

Also, the same speakers and leaders will train local people to be
specialized motivational counselors and facilitators, thereby developing
permanent talent in each Latino community, which will support and follow
up with the participants in these activities.

The youngsters will receive positive information about their people,
such as the contributions that Hispanics have made to this great country,
which can be found in the Hispanics Contributions website, at www.hispaniccontributions.org.

Music: Establish and develop an after-school choral
music education and performance program similar to that of Kidsingers, an
award-winning, inner-city youth chorus that is comprised of 95% Hispanic
youth from Santa Ana, California. Its mission is "to empower at-risk youth
to gain self-esteem, self-expression and a sense of community
accomplishment through the discipline of quality music training and
performance opportunities creating 'harmony for a better community.'" A
University of California, Irvine impact study showed an 87% increase in
self-esteem in youngsters participating in Kidsingers.

Positive Peer Groups: One result of the
seminars, symposia and workshops will be efforts to identify, train, guide
and support young individuals who would organize other Hispanic youths
into positive peer groups in their communities, which will counsel and
assist their "at-risk" peers socially and academically. The ideal persons
to form these groups will be Hispanic students in local colleges and
universities who have demon-strated the following:

Positive attitudes about themselves and society in general.

Commitment to and involvement in their communities.

Academic excellence.

Personal courage and strength.

Compassion for people less fortunate than they.

Inspirational Hispanics: Reading and discussion
groups will be organized with and for young Hispanics to inspire them to
improve their lives. The topic to be covered in these gatherings will be
the accomplishments and contributions of Hispanic Americans, past and
present.

Before these group participants get together, they will prepare
themselves by visiting our other website (at www.hispaniccontributions.org)
and by reading the following books by Frank DeVarona:

Hispanic Presence in the United States: Historical
Beginnings.

Latino Literacy: The Complete Guide to Our Hispanic History and
Culture.

Standing Tall: The Stories of Ten Hispanic Americans.

Mentors: Successful adults in occupations in which
Latino youths want to pursue careers will be the latter's mentors,
supporting, guiding and inspiring them to become winners in their chosen
professions.

Parent Support Groups: Groups, organized and supported
through this project, will motivate Hispanic parents to be involved in
their children's lives: supporting, guiding and motivating them. The
parents will also receive the support they need to carry out their
activities effectively.

Prominent Motivational Personalities: Outstanding
Hispanic figures from the entertainment industry, mass communications,
organized labor, business, academia, art, sports and public service will
participate together in nationally televised forums. These activities
would be recorded on videotapes and compact discs and distributed to
Hispanic student, church, business and community groups. Extraordinary
Hispanics (some of them identified in elsewhere in this website) would
share the stage and the limelight with these personalities.

Students As Role Models: The young people, the focus
of our project, will be motivated by Hispanic college students who have
demonstrated:

Positive attitude about themselves and the world in general.

Dedication to the well-being of their communities.

Academic, professional and/or artistic excellence.

Personal courage and strength.

Compassion for people less fortunate than they.

Students As Achievers And Contributors: Hispanic high
school and college students who excel academically and plan careers that
can benefit their communities will be inducted into Hispanic Achievers
Society, a national organization committed to fostering academic
excellence and community involvement among young Latinos. It will, among
other things, recognize these students for their achievements and provide
them with sub-stantive support, such as scholarships, to enable them to
pursue their chosen careers.

Informing

Textbooks: Textbook publishers will be asked to include in
history books information about the roles that Hispanics have played in
the history of the United States.

Historians: Throughout the year, and especially during Hispanic
Heritage Month, under Partners' auspices, historians would visit Hispanic
communities and organizations and educational institutions with relatively
large percentages of Hispanics to tell them about the historical role of
their people in this and other countries. Ideally, these visits would take
place when the motivational activities mentioned above were taking place,
thereby reinforcing them.

Interactive Compact Recordable Discs: salient
information in books that dealt with Hispanic achievements and
contributions in the United States would also be on compact recordable
discs, which would:

Include text and pictures of: the persons featured in the books, the
places where they were born and raised, and where their exploits took
place.

Include information on current Hispanic Community Champions.

Be interactive so the viewers could interact with the information on
the discs, e.g., as they are reading the text describing the
accomplishments of David Farragut, the first admiral of the U.S. Navy,
the viewers could click on a link see photographs of the area in Spain
where he was born and raised.

Be distributed to schools, community organizations, churches, public
libraries, bookstores and video stores where there are large
concentrations of Hispanic Americans.

Carry out research on Hispanic-American history.

Conduct graduate seminars on this subject.

Encourage promising Hispanic students to become scholars in this
subject.

Use history textbooks that mention Hispanic contributions to the
United States.

Include Hispanic-American history in the American history classes in
their schools.

Scholars: Colleges and universities with large concentrations of
Hispanics will be encouraged to establish Eminent Scholar chairs for
Hispanics and persuade corporations to endow the chairs, which would:

Carry out research on Hispanic-American history.

Conduct graduate seminars on this subject.

Encourage promising Hispanic students to become scholars in this
subject.

Elementary and Secondary School Curricula: Hispanic community
organizations will be encouraged to persuade their local public school
boards to:

Use history textbooks that mention Hispanic contributions to the
United States.

Include Hispanic-American history in the American history classes in
their schools.

Films: Film producers, directors and writers will be encouraged
to collaborate in producing big-screen and television drama and
documentary films with themes that deal with Hispanics and include
Hispanic performers. One of these films, for example, could focus on a
protagonist who represents the Hispanic Congressional Medal of Honor
recipients.

Besides providing entertainment, the films would stimulate thought and
discussion about past and current roles of Hispanics in this society.

Results

Improvements will come gradually, but come they will if everyone
involved:

Believes in and is committed to this activity.

Goes beyond the call of duty.

Has a positive attitude.

Cooperates with and supports everyone else involved.

Brings skills that strengthen the project.

Is efficient and effective in the project's implementation.

Indicators of improvements in Latino youth

Improved self-esteem and cultural pride.

Higher academic grades.

Fewer high school dropouts.

Higher college attendance.

More involvement in communities.

Less anti-social behavior, e.g., reduced Latino gang membership.

Other indicators of the project's progress

The number of national and community organizations involved.

The number of events, e.g., seminars, workshops, conferences,
rallies, held.

The number of youth, parents, mentors, role models, motivational
speakers and celebrities involved.

Submit reports to the entity that funded the activity and to the
organizations that collaborated with us in its implementation. Also, the
reports will be available for public scrutiny.

Additional Activities

Initially, the funds we seek will cover the cost of laying the
groundwork for our project and for its implementation. Once this activity
is underway and producing positive results, we will solicit additional
funds for the following:

Financial aid for students: Hispanic students with
outstanding grades, who commit themselves to serving their communities,
will be offered scholarships to continue their education.

Nationally Televised Ceremonies: Annually, during
Hispanic Heritage Month, there will be a ceremony to honor the students,
teachers and schools that have contributed the most to the pursuit of our
objective. We will try to persuade the appropriate entities to televise
this activity nationally.

Sesame Workshop Productions: Sesame Workshop, Inc.,
owns and produces the popular Sesame Street television shows in this and
in almost two thirds of the other countries. We will ask this company to
produce inspirational television and stage shows for Hispanic
children.

Music: Establish and develop an
after-school choral music education and performance program similar to
that of Kidsingers, an award-winning, inner-city youth chorus that is
comprised of 95% Hispanic youth from Santa Ana, California. Its
mission is “to empower at-risk youth to gain self-esteem, self-expression
and a sense of community accomplishment through the discipline of quality
music training and performance opportunities creating harmony for a better
community. A University of California, Irvine impact study showed an 87%
increase in self-esteem in youngsters participating in Kidsingers.